


Match... Doesn't Match

by Sally M (sallymn)



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Episode fixit, Episode: s04e08 The Sentinel by Blair Sandburg, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-31
Updated: 2013-12-31
Packaged: 2018-01-06 20:35:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1111229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sallymn/pseuds/Sally%20M
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>TSbyBS goes slightly... different.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Match... Doesn't Match

**Match... Doesn't Match**

Her finger hovered - for a moment, just for a single, solitary, 'do-I-really-know-better-than-my-son' moment above the on switch on the little computer, a moment when, for the first time in many years Naomi Sandburg doubted what her heart told her. 

_"It's just not good enough yet. And I want you to be really proud, all right? Just let it be, okay?"_

The moment - and Naomi's doubt - passed. Of course she knew better - her son was the one with doubt, without faith in himself and his studies and his knowledge and his intellect (and Naomi know, oh yes she _knew,_ all that work with the intellect-eroding, soul-destroying, idea-trampling, donut-and-all-things-unhealthy-inhaling pig- okay okay, _police_ were to blame for that lack). She was certain. She was listening with her heart. She was _right._

She was not going to read his dissertation, she'd as good as promised, but she hadn't promised not to get someone else to. Her heart told her that Sid, her publisher friend, could be trusted, after all.... 

Her finger pressed down, and the laptop powered up into neon-bright life. 

Her son would understand, he had always (well, before the pigs-police had got to him) put faith and openness and freedom of ideas first in _everything_ he did and said, and... 

The little screen blinked. 

**[password needed]**

Naomi was dumbstruck for a minute. _Freedom_ was clearly, obviously lacking in Blair's life now, she _knew_ she could have gotten him away from these people before he lost the trust in people like... like, well, _his mother_. No _way_ would he have locked his computer up like this when they'd lived so happy and carefree and trusting among the Haida Nation, or the Guaraní, or the Tambuka, or... 

She huffed an annoyed breath, but this wasn't going to stop her helping him, the way her heart told her he needed. A password would be easy, after all: Blair wasn't a complicated soul, she knew him better than _anyone_ , she could so easily guess. 

Her eyes lit up. _His first girlfriend, of course._

**[summerskyerainbolt]** Oh yes, Naomi remembered her well, a lovely girl, all principles and ideals and beansprout-fed beauty at just six years... 

**[password doesn't match]**

Okay, maybe too obvious. _First serious girlfriend, then..._

**[bayeleeanndecastro]**

**[password doesn't match]**

Well, there had been a lot of girls, serious or not, she'd raised him to embrace love in all its... _First boyfriend, maybe?_

**[damiencasterline]** Tall, dark, easily half as gorgeous as Jim Ellison.... 

**[password doesn't match]**

She tried a dozen others, vague memories of male _and_ female beauties that had seemed special at the time. Obviously not special enough, any of them. 

Naomi frowned, thinking back... _Favorite childhood pet. Oh yes, he just adored that lizard..._

**[rebel_reptile]**

**[password doesn't match]**

_Or maybe he loved the duck more..?_

**[duckula]**

**[password doesn't match]**

_Or that long-ago commune's cat..?_

**[killerkarmickitty]**

**[password doesn't match]**

Well, thank the Goddess for _that_ , she had never liked that name... 

Several animals later, she gave up on Blair being at one with nature - virtually, at any rate - and thought again. There _was_ the nickname her friends had given him as a quite adorable infant - sure, he'd _said_ (for a four-year-old, with quite startling fluency and vigor) that he didn't like it... 

**[sunshine_sweetie]**

**[password doesn't match]**

The nickname _his_ friends had given him... 

**[anthrogeek]**

**[password doesn't match]**

_Favorite book!_ The one she'd given him for his sixteenth birthday, he'd reread a hundred times, carried it round the... 

**[the_etheric_body_of_man]**

**[password doesn't match]**

****

[theethericbodyofman] 

****

[password doesn't match]

****

She looked up, eyes seeking inspiration in the bookshelves and pictures. 

**[anthropology101]**

**[password doesn't match]**

****

[anthropology112] 

****

[password doesn't match] 

****

[kombai_tree_people] 

****

[password doesn't match] 

****

[chopec] 

****

[password doesn't match] 

****

[burton] 

****

[password doesn't match] 

****

[thinblueline] 

****

[password doesn't match] 

****

[thickblueline] 

****

[password doesn't match] 

****

[password doesn't match] 

****

[password doesn't match]

****

Naomi huffed again. A small part of her brain (usually overridden, quite rightly, by heart) murmured that maybe she didn't have time to go through all the important people, pets, places, books music... stuff in Blair's life before he - or his cop - came back... 

_Oh, all RIGHT, Blair. And believe me, if this works, it'll just prove how brainwashed and programmed you've become... or okay, your taste in boyfriends is even better these days._

**[jimellison]**

**[password doesn't match]**

****

[jamesellison] 

****

[password doesn't match]

****

_Well, thank god for that._ She liked Jim, but still... he was a still a cop. A truly horrible idea popped into her brain, and she whimpered, but had to try. 

**[ilovejim]**

**[password doesn't match]**

****

[blairlovesjim] 

****

[password doesn't match]

****

_Well, maybe he doesn't._ After all, he did keep saying he was just observing... and Jim was gorgeous, yes, but still, a pig was a pig was a... 

**[observing_pigs]**

**[password doesn't match]**

****

[observing] 

****

[password doesn't match] 

****

[observer1] 

****

[password doesn't match]

****

That small part of her brain murmured again, something about maybe Blair had locked this up because he really, truly didn't _want_ anyone getting in and meddling... 

_Not meddling, helping. And so help me, I'm going to help him if I have to try every single person, pet, place, book, song... thing he'd ever had, I am_ going _to help him!_

She settled down, face determined, small part of brain silence, heart in total command. The password should be _fairly_ easy, Blair _really_ wasn't that complicated a soul, and she did, she _did_ know him better than anyone. She was his _mother..._

  

Several hours later, his mother's son stared round the deserted apartment, and then down at his laptop. 

"Oh _no_ Mom..." Blair was tired and stretched thin after a long day, and in no mood to try and work out what on earth Hurricane Naomi had done this time. "You didn't, you really didn't... damn it, I _told_ you to let it be..." 

He stared at the sticky note on the keyboard - _"Darling, I meant well.... and you and I are going to have a talk about trust."_

"Yeah, Mom, that we are," he muttered, powering the little computer up with slightly shaking hands. The screen blinked twice, then gave a beep that sounded as weary - and, to his over-active imagination, as indignant - as he felt, and started scrolling. 

**[password doesn't match]**

**[password doesn't match]**

****

[password doesn't match] 

****

[password doesn't match] 

****

[password doesn't match] 

****

[password doesn't match] 

****

"Damn it, Mom!" He hit a few buttons, and it stopped. "I wonder how many you tried? God only knows what a mess you could have made if you'd managed..." 

"Managed what?" Ellison wandered in from the kitchen, two beers held loosely between the fingers of one hand, an indecently fat sandwich in the other. "I thought you said Naomi was visiting." 

"She was - is - probably was and thought better," Blair sighed. "You know her." 

Jim gave him a slow, teasing grin. "What did she do to wreck your karma this time, Chief?" 

"She didn't, man, though _not_ , I'd guess," he went on under his breath, "for the want of trying. Mom, what in God's name were you gonna do to me this time?" 

Thank God he'd learned a little less trust and a little more discretion - _see, Mom, observing the cops was good for something -_ and that his mother knew him less well than she thought she did. A touch of random coldness made him shiver, and for a second, he almost glimpsed something dark and anguished that might have been... but only for a second, and it was gone. 

After all, even if she had meddled, what was the worst that could have happened? Really. 

**[password needed]**

**[ts_by_bs]**

**\- the end -**


End file.
